The Herald Times Reporter reached out to Manitowoc mayoral candidates challenger Barry Nelson and incumbent Justin Nickels and asked them to participate in a five-day series of columns. We selected the topics for the first four columns, and the topic of the fifth column was left open to the candidates to make their final cases. Here are their respective responses to the fourth topic: infrastructure.

Infrastructure:What are the city’s main infrastructure priorities and how would you address them?

Justin Nickels

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Justin Nickels(Photo: Josh Clark/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin)

I think we can all agree the condition of our roads, in certain areas of the city, needs some attention. There is no doubt that we cut back on road repair the past few years, at least from what we had historically been putting into them. In the late '90s and early 2000s, the city invested millions of dollars into roads, especially new roads in the industrial park. While that was beneficial to the city, the leaders of those times never budgeted ways to repay those debts — which is why in 2009 we got stuck with paying off those old debts with no responsible way to do so.

The question isn’t whether or not our roads need repair; the question is how will we fund roads moving forward.

The cost of repairing and replacing roads will only increase. For example, this year I budgeted for the complete reconstruction of South 10th Street from Dewey to Viebahn — arguably one of the worst roads in the city right now. That is a mile worth of road, which was originally constructed in 1929. The cost: $1.7 million. Imagine if we were able to do just 5 percent of all our roads in one year. That would be $25.5 million worth of road construction and it would take us 50 years to complete the entire city, at which point, we would have to start all over again, again, with the costs of roads increasing every year.

I know not every road needs to be fully reconstructed, but the point I want to get across is that roads are expensive and we can’t fully fund roads through the general fund or borrowing.

So, what have we done?

In the 2017 budget, I tripled the budget for potholes and slab replacement. We are focusing more and more on maintenance.

We have a five-year capital plan in place that the Public Infrastructure Committee just approved. I’m not going to lie to you that over the past few years we haven’t completely followed that plan since we had to get our budget in line and lower our debt.

However, we are at a point financially where we can put larger sums of money back into roads and infrastructure. In my 22-point plan, I call for investing $22 million on roads and infrastructure between now and 2022. We can do this, without raising taxes or going further into debt. In fact, under my plan, we will actually reduce our debt by $10 million, bringing our overall city debt from $76 million in 2009 to $40 million in 2021. You can view my 22-point plan by visiting: www.justinnickels.com.

Under my plan, we will focus on the priority streets listed in the five-year capital plan, and the streets which meet the PASER rating for needed repairs. You can view that five-year capital plan on the city’s website: www.manitowoc.org.

We also need to be very aware what the State of Wisconsin is doing to fund roads. Our road maintenance budget is highly dependent upon state dollars. If the state pushes more of their money into major highways and interchanges, without finding ways to increase revenues, cities will see less aid for road repair. If that happens, that means we would need to drastically increase taxes or increase our debt to fund roads to a level that is necessary for our community.

Barry Nelson

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Barry Nelson(Photo: Josh Clark/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin)

Paying down the city’s debt by not doing road repair is like saving money by not putting oil in your car. If the average rate of inflation is 2-3 percent and you delay a road project eight years, you’ve increased the cost of repairs by more than 16-24 percent. We all know when water gets into cracks and freezes it expands. What could have been a minor repair now becomes a more expensive one.

When you are not performing road repairs, you are not hiring people to do the work. Studies show that money spent locally changes hands six to seven times. By not repairing roads, those workers are not buying gas for their vehicles. The gas station owner cannot pay wages; the employee cannot buy groceries, and so forth.

As the current mayor takes credit for debt reduction by not investing in infrastructure, he, too, must take the blame for getting us into debt.

During his time on city council, the current mayor repeatedly voted for the budgets that created debt. Similarly, over the past eight years, the city council and budget and finance director deserve much of the credit for keeping spending under control and balancing our budget.

Let me just speak honestly, without malice or ill intent: what better decisions could a high school graduate (whose previous job experience was as a grocery store bagger) have made that you or anyone else could not?

If you believe the current mayor was the architect of fixing the budget, why then has our city been falling behind other lakeshore communities and continues to have a shrinking population?

In a 2009 Herald Times Reporter article, the current mayor highlighted the need to get state resources to perform needed repairs on South 10th, Dewey and Custer streets. Eight years later, his plan still includes repairing these same streets. The current mayor also stated in the same article that he would lobby our state officials for even more funding.

I recently sat down with state Rep. Paul Tittl and already began pushing him for more state resources. Tittl stated he is actively going to work to get us those resources.

I have had several great discussions with county officials, including the county executive and comptroller. It is my belief that the mayor and our county and state officials do not have this sort of relationship. Not having that relationship hurts you as a Manitowoc resident.

As mayor, I will make sure we pay for road repair in part by allocating the tax dollars currently being received toward road repair.

I will also look at ways to lower the road tax (or road assessment) home owners receive when road repairs are done. I have had neighbors tell me they are being charged $8,000 for new roads outside their home. If they don’t have the money, a lien can be placed on their home or the city will loan them the money at 7 percent interest payable over the next few tax bills. This has got to change.

I have managed multi-million-dollar budgets in the past for the government. I have worked on multi-million-dollar projects for local businesses. I have worked with a variety of large government agencies.

As your next mayor, I have already begun working on improving our infrastructure by doing what I say I’ll do and relying on my past successful experiences. I will work with our county and state officials and do what is right for the future of our city. Our youth, potential businesses and you deserve a city you can be proud of.